Lady Beavers knock off trojans

Pratt Community College head women’s basketball coach Stephanie Thompson may have been thinking she needed a big hollow horse or something if she was ever going to find a way to beat the Colby Trojans on their home floor. It turned out all she needed Wednesday night was a total team effort out of her Lady Beavers who downed Colby 76-56 to earn Coach Thompson her first ever victory at Colby.

Comment

By Neil DePew

PrattTribune - Pratt, KS

By Neil DePew

Posted Feb. 1, 2013 at 2:01 PM
Updated Feb 1, 2013 at 2:03 PM

By Neil DePew

Posted Feb. 1, 2013 at 2:01 PM
Updated Feb 1, 2013 at 2:03 PM

Colby

Pratt Community College head women’s basketball coach Stephanie Thompson may have been thinking she needed a big hollow horse or something if she was ever going to find a way to beat the Colby Trojans on their home floor. It turned out all she needed Wednesday night was a total team effort out of her Lady Beavers who downed Colby 76-56 to earn Coach Thompson her first ever victory at Colby.

“I was excited to win at Colby,” Thompson said. “I had never done it before. It’s been a tough place for us to play. It was a good team win. We had a little bit of a lull in the second half, but overall we played really well.”

PCC never trailed in the contest, opening up a 21-10 lead before the first media time-out. The Beavers were doing much of their damage inside, post players Elle Stein and Ashari Broadwater benefitting from good entry passes and finishing at the hoop.

Wings Kelsi Strobel and Hayli Smith were in the mix also, hitting often enough from outside that Colby couldn’t just pack the lane. The bench was involved as well, Kari Devlin scoring a Windex bucket in the early Beaver run.

“We had really good shot selection,” Coach Thompson pointed out. “When we’re patient on offense like we were tonight, we can get ourselves some good looks.” Pratt shot 63% from the floor in the first half as evidence that they were getting themselves high percentage attempts. The Lady Beavers cooled off a bit in the second half, but still managed to shoot an impressive 53% for the game.

Rebounding was again a plus for Pratt as the Lady Beavers dominated the boards, collecting 30 rebounds to only 10 for Colby. 15 of those were offensive boards, giving PCC numerous second chance points. “We rebounded exceptionally well,” admitted Thompson.

The Lady Beavers have a defensive goal of holding opponents to “30-ish” points in the first half, which is exactly what they did. Leading 42-30 at the intermission, PCC came out after the break and picked up right where they left off.

Although rather quiet in the first half, guard Tatiana Grant scored 8 points in the second half, her slashing style either resulting in buckets or free throws. She was able to dish the ball for assists, too. Samantha Watson had one of her better games, the reserve inside player posting 6 points in the second half.

At the final buzzer, PCC had a solid 76-56 win. “I was unhappy with the turnovers, we got a little lackadaisical at times,” Thompson mentioned, “but I think overall we’re in a good place heading into the 2nd round of conference play.”

Page 2 of 2 - At 12-9 overall (3-5 Jayhawk West), the PCC women have a week off before traveling to take on Cloud County February 6.